"31 When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory.
32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.
33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
34 Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.
35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in,
36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
37 Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink?
38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you?
39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
40 The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’
41 Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink,
43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’
44 They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’
45 He will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’
46 Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”
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Not only do churches have a history of supporting socialist revolutionary movements. Not only has the current Pope claimed the label of socialism. But Jesus himself was a socialist!
Matthew 6:26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?
Luke 16:13 No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.
1 Timothy 6:10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
Proverbs 28:20 A faithful man will abound with blessings, but whoever hastens to be rich will not go unpunished.
Romans 13:1-7 But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you.
14 You will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.
Luke 14:13 If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.
Act 1 44/45 "And all that believed were together, and had all things in common;
And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need."
Act 2 44/45: And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common.
33 And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all.
34 Neither was there any among them that lacked: for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold,
35 And laid them down at the apostles’ feet: and distribution was made unto every man according as he had need.
36 And Joses, who by the apostles was surnamed Barnabas, (which is, being interpreted, The son of consolation,) a Levite, and of the country of Cyprus,
37 Having land, sold it, and brought the money, and laid it at the apostles’ feet
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberation_theology
Liberation theology could be interpreted as an attempt to return to the
gospel of the
early church where Christianity is politically and culturally decentralized.
[13]
Liberation theology proposes to fight poverty by addressing its alleged source, the
sin of greed. In so doing, it explores the relationship between
Christian theology (especially
Roman Catholic) and political activism, especially in relation to
economic justice,
poverty, and
human rights. The principal methodological innovation is seeing theology from the perspective of the poor and the oppressed. For example,
Jon Sobrino argues that the poor are a privileged channel of
God's grace.
Some liberation theologians base their social action upon the
Bible scriptures describing the mission of
Jesus Christ, as
bringing a sword (
social unrest), e.g.,
Isaiah 61:1,
Matthew 10:34,
Luke 22:35–38 — and
not as bringing peace (
social order).[
better source needed] This biblical interpretation is a call to
action against poverty, and the sin engendering it, to affect Jesus Christ's mission of justice in this world.
Gustavo Gutiérrez gave the movement its name with his 1971 book,
A Theology of Liberation.
[14] In this book, Gutiérrez combined populist ideas with the social teachings of the Catholic Church. He was influenced by an existing socialist current in the Church which included organizations such as the
Catholic Worker Movement and the
Jeunesse Ouvrière Chrétienne, a Belgian Christian youth worker organization. He was also influenced by
Paul Gauthier's
The Poor, Jesus and the Church (1965). Gutiérrez's book is based on an understanding of history in which the human being is seen as assuming conscious responsibility for human destiny, and yet Christ the Saviour liberates the human race from sin, which is the root of all disruption of friendship and of all injustice and oppression.
[15]
Gutiérrez also popularized the phrase "
preferential option for the poor", which became a slogan of liberation theology and later appeared in addresses of the Pope.
[16] Drawing from the biblical motif on the poor, Gutiérrez asserts that God is revealed as having a preference for those people who are “insignificant", "marginalized", “unimportant", "needy", "despised", and "defenseless". Moreover, he makes clear that terminology of "the poor" in scripture has social and economic connotations that etymologically go back to the Greek word,
ptōchos.
[17] To be sure, as to not misinterpret Gutiérrez's definition of the term "preferential option", he stresses, "Preference implies the universality of God’s love, which excludes no one. It is only within the framework of this universality that we can understand the preference, that is, 'what comes first'."
[18]
Gutiérrez emphasized practice (or, more technically, "
praxis") over doctrine. Gutiérrez clarified his position by advocating a circular relationship between
orthodoxy and
orthopraxis seeing the two as having a symbiotic relationship.
[19] Gutierrez' reading of prophets condemning oppression and injustice against the poor (i.e., Jeremiah 22:13–17) informs his assertion that to know God (orthodoxy) is to do justice (orthopraxis).
[20] Cardinal
Joseph Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI), however, criticized liberation theology for elevating orthopraxis to the level of orthodoxy.
[21] Richard McBrien summarizes this concept as follows:
God is disclosed in the historical "praxis" of liberation. It is the situation, and our passionate and reflective involvement in it, which mediates the Word of God. Today that Word is mediated through the cries of the poor and the oppressed.
